CONG FM ROMUALDEZ

HOUSE independent minority bloc leader and Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez strongly urged yesterday the government to seek clarification from the Supreme Court (SC) on how to settle the financial obligations incurred by the government from the contractors who implemented the projects funded by controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

This was stressed by Romualdez before Congress passes a supplemental budget to address the payment for incomplete and finished projects funded by DAP after the Supreme Court (SC) declared its key provisions unconstitutional.

“A clarification should be made as to how the financial obligations will be addressed before appropriating something through supplemental budget,” Romualdez stressed.

Romualdez also underscored the need for the Commission on Audit (CoA) to conduct a full audit on DAP projects to determine if these are properly implemented and ensure that those are important and relevant to the needs of the people.

“The CoA should also determine if DAP projects are implemented according to the standards and relevance to the necessities of the people,” Romualdez explained.

Speaker Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte Jr. supported the passage of a supplemental budget to ensure continuity of projects funded by DAP, explaining Congress has the option to pass supplemental budget to fund ongoing projects or pay contractors.

“That’s a possible option (passing a supplemental budget) we can take,” Belmonte said, adding he would back a measure seeking to refine the meaning of savings and its utilization for other projects.

Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone, vice chairman of the House committee on appropriations, supported the idea, but cited the need to validate first the ongoing projects funded by DAP.

“That is a good idea, but we have to validate and identify first the projects funded by DAP and if these are implemented properly,” said Evardone.

“The consensus is that the funds were put into good use and if there are anomalies in the implementation, they should be investigated by the Commission on Audit,” Evardone added.

Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, chairman of the House committee o appropriations, said contractors should be paid through supplemental budget especially if they acted in good faith in the implementation of the projects funded by DAP.